A Review of "Democratic Individuality"

A review essay on a book by Alan Gilbert, Democratic Individuality (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge U Press, 1990 [see listing in IRPS No. 75]). The first part of the book critically examines moral relativism through consideration of ancient & modern proponents of that perspective ranging from Aristotle to Michael Walzer. The endpoint of this reasoned & sophisticated analytical discussion of moral theories is the development of a theory of moral realism that affirms the objective existence of moral standards & democratic individualism. The second part of the book, differing from the first in both style & content, presents a polemical & injudicious discussion of the thought of Max Weber & Karl Marx, elevating Marx & his moral realism to a position of high moral achievement & authority, & portraying Weber's moral relativism as the morally stunted position of a bourgeois thinker. D. Generoli